1. Consolation is the first of these: “The disciples walked in the fear of the Lord, and in the consolation of the Holy Ghost,” Acts ix. 31, Τῇ παρακλήσει τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος, He is ὁ παράκλητος, and he gives παράκλησιν: from his work towards us, and in us, we have comfort and consolation. This is the first general consequent of his dispensation and work. Whenever there is mention made of comfort and consolation in the Scripture given to the saints (as there is most frequently), it is the proper consequent of the work of the Holy Ghost towards them. Comfort or consolation in general, is the setting and composing of the soul in rest and contentedness in the midst of or from troubles, by the consideration or presence of some good, wherein it is interested, outweighing the evil, trouble, or perplexity that it hath to wrestle withal. Where mention is made of comfort and consolation, properly so called, there is relation to trouble or perplexity; so the apostle, 2 Cor. i. 5, 6, “As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” Suffering and consolation are opposed, the latter being a relief against the former; so are all the promises of comfort, and all the expressions of it, in the Old and New Testament still proposed as reliefs against trouble.